Guild Wars 2

Context Sensitive Actions Ranger Pet Improvement

Ranger pets are very lacking in dangerous dungeon environments and need additional handling to survive even what should be simple bosses. Against bosses who manipulate massive AOE, pets have no chance to dodge properly and often die taking away a significant portion of Ranger DPS with them. These changes are meant to increase the skill floor of the class and provide a way to help a pet to survive dungeon combat.

Current Pet Combat Options
1. Attack my Target
2. Pet Specific Action
3. Return to Me
4. Switch Pet

These options are inadequate in their current state and need more flexibility.

New Pet Combat Options
1. Attack my Target
-> a. Attack Opposite of Me
2. Pet Specific Action (Enemy Targeted)
-> a. Pet Specific Action 2 (Targeted AOE)
3. Return to Me (Adjusted)
-> a. Provide Support (Targeted AOE)
4. Switch Pet (No Change)

Attack my Target (#1): When you haven’t told your pet to attack a specific target, the #1 button will be in this state.

Attack Opposite of Me (#1a): #1 button changes to this state when you have commanded you pet to attack your target. This tells the pet to adjust directly opposite of you when attacking. This state flips back to #1 when you use #3 (Return to Me), or change targets (Your pet will still attack the current target until you order to attack a different target).

Pet Specific Action (#2): Works as usual when the skill in question requires a target to be effective.

Pet Specific Action 2 (#2a): The skill implementation will now be used in place of #2 for AOE pet actions and will tell your pet to use the ability at the targeted spot instead of needing the pet to get close to the targeted enemy.

Return to Me (#3): This button will be in this state assuming your pet is not already in this state. When calling the pet to return to you, the pet will gain a pet specific buff called “Instinctive Evasion” which will trigger a pet evade when damage is calculated to be significant from an enemy source(50%+ of a pet’s HP instantly or 33% lost within a few seconds) or when the damage comes from an AOE. When Return to Me is used, this button shifts to Provide Support (#3a).
Instinctive Evasion Note: Instinctive Evasion is available for the pet while in the state of both #3 and #3a but also uses your pet’s endurance meter that refills at 2x the normal rate.

Provide Support (#3a): While the pet is in the state from Return to Me (#3), this button is available and commands the pet to provide special pet specific support to you and your allies on your targeted location at a radius of 700 which will be channeled until commanded otherwise after which the support boon will be on cd for 30 seconds. The support boon use the pet’s boon duration and ignores the trait “Compassion Training” for an unmodified boon duration of 100%. This button flips back to #3 on use of #3a or when you command your pet with #1, #2, or switch the pet (#4).
Note: The pet can evade while channeling the boon without interrupting it.

The support boons provided are as follows:

Attack Support (Bird, Canine, Feline, Shark, Jellyfish)
• Channel: Provide 5 stacks of Might for 5 seconds every 5 seconds.
• On End: Provide 10 stacks of Might for 15 seconds and Fury for 15 seconds.

Utility Support (Moa, Bear, Porcine, Drake)
• Channel: Provide 3 stacks of Might for 5 seconds and 2 seconds of vigor every 5 seconds.
• On End: Provide 5 seconds of stability and 10 seconds of retaliation.

Defense Support (Devourer, Armor Fish, Spider)
• Channel: Provide 5 seconds of swiftness and 2 seconds of vigor every 5 seconds.
• On End: Provide 8 seconds of protection and 4 seconds of regeneration.
Support Boon Notes: On End means when you cancel the support boon by using any of the actions #1, #2/#2a, or #3. The boon will not activate the On End buffs if the pet dies or is switched out. Two or more versions of the same buff cannot be applied at the same time (ex: Attack Support + Attack Support). You can however utilize different supports together at the same time (ex: Attack Support + Utility Support, AS + US + DS, ect.).

With these changes, a ranger pet no longer automatically dies when a boss drops an AOE or becomes useless when dealing with targets he can’t hit as he can always provide a role even when not actively in combat. The major support boons can be used both offensively and defensively.

Scenario 1(Offensive Support): You’re a ranger using a cat. By carefully timing your “Return to Me” calls, you keep your cat alive against the boss with his evasion while bursting his offensive support every 30 seconds by telling him to channel and immediately canceling it to get the On End Buff of the skill. In the case your cat does get hurt, you simply let him channel in the back granting your party an easy 5 stacks of Might until he recovers.

Scenario 2(Utility Support): You have a bear. Your guardian mistimes his stability and it turns out the boss is using his “Knock you on your kitten and own you” attack. No problem, you quickly tell your pet “Return to Me”-> “Provide Support” and cancel it to quickly give your party stability and retaliation. Your party thanks you while the guardian feels slightly annoyed by your usefulness.

Scenario 3(Defensive Support): You’re using a devourer. Your party has no easy access to defense boons but can already stack a high offense. So you tell your devourer to “Return to Me”-> “Provide Support” in a good location to give your guys a nice defensive edge. When one of your allies starts getting more attention than he deserves, you cancel your pets channel to provide him with a healthy dose of protection and regeneration.

Scenario 4 (WvW): You have a ranger party standing on a wall and you want your pets to be useful so you organize 3 pets of different support types, and have them channel their support granting 5 people a large amount of free boons.

This is just a small sample of what a pet skills rework could do for our class. Any questions or comments are welcome.